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he Executive Secretariat of the Commission for the Control of Drug Abuse (CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS) today released the technical report on "Alternatives to Incarceration for Drug -Related Offenses," which was presented to members states in its recent 57th regular session.

The OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, said that the proposals respond to the findings of the OAS Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas, which was drafted under his supervision in compliance with a mandate from the Heads of State at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Colombia in April 2012. "The report concluded that there is a problem of prison overcrowding in nearly all the countries of the hemisphere due to drug enforcement taking place mainly through criminal sanctions," he said. In this respect, he said "the application of severe laws for drug offenses has generated negative consequences such as overloaded courts and prisons, and the suffering of thousands of people imprisoned for small drug offenses."

The shift in policy in the region and the beginning of the joint formulation of proposals of alternatives to imprisonment began, relates the report, with the approval of the member states of the OAS - through CICAD - of the 2010 Hemispheric Drug Strategy and its 2011-2015 Plan of Action agreeing to "explore the means of offering treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery support services to drug‐dependent offenders as an alternative to imprisonment, and in some cases, criminal prosecution."

Justice Keith Thom, who yesterday jailed a woman for three years and fined her $300,000 for cocaine possession, said authorities should increase the penalties for indictable drug offences.

The judge said drug trafficking is “a serious thriving trade” thus penalties need to be severe to deter traffickers and drug mules.

In handing down the sentence on Canadian visitor Maria Cathrina Bertrand, Justice Thom highlighted that under The Misuse of Drugs Act, the court could not impose a sentence exceeding seven years in prison.

where President Daniel Ortega, seeking a third consecutive five-year term in November, has just announced that his wife, Rosario Murillo, is his vice-presidential running mate.

Mr. Ortega first ruled Nicaragua for 11 years after the 1979 revolution, until his ouster in the country’s first genuinely democratic election

Having regained the presidency in 2006 through a series of corrupt political maneuvers, Mr. Ortega promptly engaged in more chicanery to ensure he would never have to leave office again

The aim of this international peacekeeping mission is to support Colombia’s justice and peace process. Its mandate was extended in 2010 to include support for the land restitution process and implementation of the Victims and Land Restitution Law.

The Mission also helps to identify new armed parties and advises Colombia on alternative methods of resolving conflicts and strengthening democracy.

The international community pays into a fund to facilitate the work of MAPP/OEA. In 2015 funds were received from the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, the USA, the EU and Turkey as well as from Germany. This money is used to support MAPP/OEA’s general mandate and all the associated activities. BMZ has a financing agreement in place with MAPP/OEA.

the big news out of Cartagena -- outside of the Secret Service wing of the Hotel Caribe, that is -- was the united front that Latin American countries put up against the United States on several big issues.

whether Cuba should be admitted to the next summit, in 2015, which the United States and Canada opposed and all 30 Latin American countries, both left-wing bastions like Ecuador and traditional U.S. allies like Colombia, favored, thus bringing the meeting to an end without a planned joint declaration

The idea of an "American camp" in Latin America has been an anachronism for some while, but this became glaringly clear in Cartagena. "We need them more than they need us," as Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society, puts it. The United States remains the region's largest trading partner, the source of 40 percent of its foreign investment and 90 percent of its remittances. U.S. foreign aid still props up shaky countries like Colombia and Guatemala. But trade with both China and Europe has grown sharply over the last decade. And both big economies like Brazil and Argentina, and smaller ones like Chile and Peru, have experienced solid growth at a time when the United States has faltered. "Most countries of the region view the United States as less and less relevant to their needs,"

caught in the crossfire between the nations to the south (principally Peru, Colombia and Bolivia) that produce illegal narcotics and the country to the north (America)

Mexico and Colombia – partially funded by the US – stepped up surveillance of aircraft and airspace. Simultaneously the US began more vigorous co-operation with Mexico to stop drugs shipments by sea.

the concept of the "transit" nations was born – countries in Central America through which drugs were passed en route to the world's largest drugs market,

it is already cheaper than China for many industries serving the American market.

while Mexico’s economy is far from trouble free, its growth easily outpaced the giants of the hemisphere — the United States, Canada and Brazil — in 2011 and 2012, according to International Monetary Fund data, making the country more attractive to fortune seekers worldwide.

residency requests had grown by 10 percent since November, when a new law meant to streamline the process took effect. And they are coming from nearly everywhere.

“We must recognize that security means more than defense,” they write. After ending the 20th century as the world’s most powerful country, “we failed to recognize that dominance, like fossil fuel, is not a sustainable form of energy.”

In their paper, the officers argue that the United States has to move from “containment” — the foreign policy established after World War II to limit the expansion and influence of the Soviet Union — to what they call “sustainment” or sustainability.

The first priority, they write, should be “intellectual capital and a sustainable infrastructure of education, health and social services to provide for the continuing development and growth of America’s youth.”